Chapter 88 - The Cornerstone of Chamber Zero
I tore down the main street of Oakhaven at sixty miles an hour, my horn blaring continuously. Shopkeepers came to their doors, startled, while Deputy Vance— Julian’s cousin, who had delivered the fraudulent eviction notices weeks ago—stepped off the sidewalk, hand on his holster, mouth open to shout.
I didn't stop. I slammed the truck onto the curb in front of the courthouse lawn, leaving long black rubber streaks on the sidewalk, and leaped out with Silas’s gold leaf clutched in my fist.
"Caleb! Have you lost your damn mind?" Deputy Vance yelled, running toward me, his hand unclipping his sidearm. "You can't drive across the square like—"
"Get out of the street, Vance!" I screamed. "Get everyone out of the buildings! The limestone beneath the square is liquefying!"
Before Vance could respond, the heavy granite statue of the Confederate memorial in the center of the lawn gave a sickening groan. Without warning, the six-ton monument dropped six feet straight down into the turf, disappearing into an instantaneous sinkhole that hissed with freezing, sulfurous steam.
The street buckled. The plate-glass windows of the bank across the square shattered simultaneously, their fragments showering onto the pavement like diamonds. Screams erupted from the shops as the citizens of Oakhaven poured out into the open street, feeling the violent, sickening drop beneath their feet.
Standing at the base of the courthouse steps, completely calm amidst the panic, was Sterling.
Beside him stood three men in dark suits, their lapels bearing the identical obsidian pins. But it was the figure standing between them that made the breath catch in my throat.
It was Julian Vance. His arm was in a sling, his face pale and haggard, but around his neck hung a heavy iron key suspended from a braided copper chain—the Master Seal of the County Archive.
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"You brought the leaf," Sterling said, stepping forward as the ground continued to shudder. "Sensible. Give it to me, and we allow the town ten minutes to evacuate before the subsidence begins."
"Julian," I said, ignoring the envoy and staring straight at the man who had tormented my family for years. "You know what’s under this building. Your great-grandfather helped Silas lay the cornerstone. If you turn that key, you aren't just taking our land—you’re wiping your own family's history off the face of the earth."
